other than not directing the ball to Yao in that stretch, not much. However, he paniced a bit and didn't seem in control of the ball very well. He hustled but it would be nice not to lose to ball in the first place. Overall, it is not a bad game for SF. He still need to find a way to contribute more on offense.
well i agree with you there.... when yao sits, i cringe at what our offense turns into. we just look lost and unorganized. i don't know if thats a coaching or personnel problem, but it's getting old.... i guess somethings will never change.
This was a great game by the Rockets, despite the loss. Steve Francis had a terrific game, some mistakes yes, but he's getting better and better as a basketball player. The Rockets as a team gave Yao great opportunities to score - simply our inability to execute down the stretch and maintain the killer instinct - cost us the victory against the so-called Fantastic Four (Lakers). I guess you could call them (the Lakers) the Titans Three. Yao did an excellent job defensively against O'Neal, especially when he fronted Shaquille and caused the three second violation. However, this means we'll have to extinguish their arrogance at the Staples Center. Looking forward to this one. I really wanted us to win the season series 4-0, but let's see about DESTROYING THEM AT STAPLES. "THE BIG BROADCAST OF 2006 - YAO MING, STEVE FRANCIS AND THE HOUSTON ROCKETS ARE NBA CHAMPIONS AGAIN. YAO AVERAGED 34.5 POINTS, 13.75 REBOUNDS, 3.78 BLOCKS IN THE FINALS AND STEVE FRANCIS TALLIED 25.7 POINTS, 12.8 ASSISTS AND 7.5 REBOUNDS IN THIS SENSATIONAL SERIES AGAINST THE PISTONS. WE CONGRATULATE YAO MING AS THE NBA FINALS MVP."
That is right but not this game. Whether it is Yao or other players who made a basket, Yao had to be on the court. Otherwise, everybody throw the bricks.
i watched the game on the tv. most time, they played very well. they did laid down a little bit after yao went to the bench in 1st hf because of fouls. jvg's time out and putting yao back did solve the problem. the annoying part was 4th qrt. during one period, we just rushed our shots. cat did and pike did too as a lot of fans pointed out. i dunno what was in their mind when we led. those two shots put fakers right back into the game. then the last 2 min, jvg did not coach very well. based on what i saw, jvg's plan was for yao to shoot a long bomb. i dunno why jvg wanted to do that. shaq had 5 fouls. we should let yao work in low post. it may foul shaq out. why didn't we do that? i don't understand. it p*ssed me off. we should win this game based on the team performance in majority time.<a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_13_1.gif' border=0></a>
Farhan007, I know you are a big SF fan and not happy with SF's new role on the team. But let us face it, the offense looks much better with Yao on the court most of the time. They need to think about the 2nd team offense, but right now when Yao is on the court and making shots, there is no reason in the world you should walk away from him in 5 consecutive possesions.
Regardless of what happened, or how many shots Yao got (21).... We still have to stop them on defense. We still have to defend the ball when we had a lead. We still need to have great defensive execution when we have a 4, 3, 2, 1 point leads with 40 seconds left. I'm not going to say that our bad defense cost us the game, cause at times it was very very good. I'm gonna say that the Lakers had their backs to the wall, and came out swinging (instead of their "backing down" that they did the previous two games). The REAL thing you guys should be complaining about is that the Rockets don't put this sort of effort, or play this "cerebrally" every night. If they treated every game like a national TV game against the Lakers, they would have NO problem beating the Sonics, Grizzlies, or even the Mavericks of the world.
Francis and those guys stopped going to him. Thank God for that too. If not, we lose. Simple as that. quote from Lakers forum!
The refs didn't do their job and let Shaq get away with 2 fouls in crunch time. That's 4 free throws not taken and momentum the Lakers way.
